Indonesia panics on accidental tsunami warning

Jakarta, June 4: A tsunami siren went off accidentally in Indonesia's Aceh province today, sending residents rushing out of their homes in panic, meteorological agency officials said.

A technical glitch sent the siren ringing for about half an hour in Aceh Besar district on the northern tip of Sumatra island, where memories of the December 2004 tsunami are still fresh.

The Indian Ocean tsunami left some 170,000 people dead or missing in Aceh alone.

''The siren was beeping for at least 30 minutes this morning without any reason, causing people in Aceh Besar to panic. They rushed to reach higher ground,'' the head of the meteorological and geophysics agency in Aceh, Syahnan Sobri, told Reuters.

''Streets along Banda Aceh were blocked by panicking people.'' Officials said they were investigating the cause of the accidental siren in Aceh, where people are often on edge whenever there is an earthquake.

''It's a technical glitch. The system broke down and it issued a tsunami warning to everyone. We did not send any information on a quake,'' said the agency's national head Sri Woro Harijono.

The people have since returned to their homes.

Earthquakes are frequent in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country. Its 17,000 islands sprawl along a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity, part of what is called the ''Pacific Ring of Fire''.

Reuters>